hen I was a younger man (not that long ago), I remember heading to the chiropractor with the family for our monthly check up. We would sit in the waiting room early on a Saturday morning and colour in pictures or play with the toys. Just like the dentist s or the doctor s waiting room, we d find in the corner a little plant. Now the plant was always funny to see because when you went up to touch it, you d find the leaves were velvety, there was no dirt in the pot, just pebbles and a realisation that this pot didn t have a plant growing in it, rather, it had a very static, not growing, piece of plastic instead! At one point in time, someone had come into this place and thought, You know what, we don t need any real pot plants in our waiting room, they re there just for show anyways, how about we just replace it with a plastic plant, it ll have the same effect without any of that tedious need to water it, tend it and prune it! Sometimes this is what goes through our heads in our community here at Church. We come to a ministry or a program or a service and see something that has been done for as long as can been remembered and we forget its original purpose. We can replace that with something easier, something less time consuming, something simple. We replace the real thing with something fake. We find our obligations and expectations become less, our need to participate in the Body of Christ diminishes and we find ourselves in a place which just doesn t have any oomph, any drive or any life. We make Church plastic and it loses its purpose. Paul in challenges the Church in Corinth who used to come together and take Communion around a table together, to eat a meal and celebrate life and the life bringing message of Jesus. They ve lost their way and have turned this time into a scramble for status and a race to get to the food first! They let their time together be governed by their stomachs and wallets. As a result Paul doesn t even consider the meal a true Communion, it s a fake plastic meal. What he seeks for them is a time in which God s people, the Ekklesia, can gather together with a good spirit, to eat a real meal in remembrance of their Lord and Saviour Jesus! In what ways do we skip out on being the Ekklesia? Have we lost touch, or made excuses to replace something real and valuable with something fake and easy that we don t have to tend, water or prune? In what ways can we work towards being a real, authentic people who share a real, life giving God?
ocial etiquette is a big part of how we live our lives. We have different ways of interacting in different social spheres, whether that s at school, college, university, in the work place. The etiquette is dictated very much by those within the society and very helpfully so at times. We have varying levels of openness, trust, confidence depending on the space we re in. We d act very differently at home with our family, our spouse in comparison to at work with a colleague. Even at Church we find ourselves within a certain social etiquette. Funnily, in any of these spheres, no matter where we are, there is always a recognition of the long haul. We work day to day alongside people and we act in order to not jeopardise or make things awkward. There is a beautiful mechanism we all know, which helps this along. It s called politeness. Being polite. We learn it is important to be polite when we are young, to show respect, common decency and consideration to people. In any sphere there is a need to be polite. It acts as a brace to any and every thought that could pop through our heads and allows us to interact well in society. We also use it as a defence mechanism which allows us to close us off and slip past the important truths into the shallow and unimportant. At work, this is important, appropriate. Work is to be done and relationships maintained at a professional level. At home, politeness only need happen at the dinner table, you can let your hair down, be yourself the rest of the time. As a part of the Ekklesia, where does politeness fit in? How often do we let the important slip under the radar, in order that we be polite to each other? We have a society which is afraid to speak up and speak its mind for fear of rejection or worse, but do we do the same as the Ekklesia of Jesus? In we find that part of our calling as God s people is to pray, together, through the things that happen in our lives. To celebrate, rejoice, mourn and cry out to God. We don t do that alone, but together. Have you ever felt something important needed to be said to someone to help you as you met with God s people, yet no one felt called to ask beyond the trifling or menial? How can we pray to God about what goes on in each other s lives if we don t put down politeness and pick up real and honest. This week, look to how you can step past politeness and step into something more real, something more authentic with the people around you.
n we find a parable that Jesus tells to those who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on everyone else. There is something in this story of an authenticity in how we come to God. The scene is set of two men who come to the temple to pray. You could imagine it quite clearly of a man whose walk is confident, because he knows people look up to him as a model citizen. Who prays loud enough that others can hear and whose prayer is more a resume of excellence to God. Out of the corner of your eye though, you see a man in what looks to be the official robes of a tax collector sidle in a side door, closer to the exit then to the altar, hidden behind a pillar, head down, gently sobbing as he prays. How often do we reflect on who we are? Our identity, our story, our history? It s often interesting to see that the way we hold ourselves and see ourselves, reflects the God we believe in. With the Pharisee, he sees himself as one who has earned every last iota of who he is and doesn t need salvation as a result. He doesn t ask for forgiveness or give praise or thanksgiving to God. He sees a God who values excellence and perfection and sees himself completely sorted. The Tax Collector knows exactly where he truly stands. He is empty, impoverished and despised by the people around him and he knows it! He comes to a God of mercy because he is seeking mercy. Do we come to God with the same honesty and perspective?
o any of you have any funny fears or phobias that you would be willing to share with your group? What are the advantages and disadvantages of being vulnerable to people? Is there a time that your trust has been betrayed by someone? If you are comfortable feel free to share it with the group. ll of us have been betrayed at some point in our lives. I (James) once told someone some very personal and sensitive information about myself and ask them to keep it private only to find out later that they had shared it with a few people around my church at the time. I remember having mixed feelings of shock, hurt and anger. Once I had this experience I not only found it hard to trust this person again but to trust anyone with sensitive information. Because there can be a cost that comes to being authentic can t there? To be real is to be vulnerable; it is a deliberate act to allow people to see us as we are and to potentially risk judgement, derision or even rejection. What does the Bible have to say about authenticity and vulnerability? Let have a look at a couple of passages from the books of James and Hebrews. What do you notice about the different types of people that James describes in v13 & 14? What are other types of people that come to church that you could add to the list? What is the command that is given to the different types of people? How often do you share your troubles, joys, ailments or struggles with others so that they might pray, rejoice or struggle with you?
What holds you back from sharing these things? There is a command in v16 to confess our sins to each other. What do you think is meant by this and what do you think would be a safe way to do this? o often we can feel like Ekklesia is the last place where we can come as we are. What will people think about us if we are struggling or reveal our pain? What if people don t want to celebrate the milestone I achieved this week? What if people say inappropriate things to me in my grief? What I reveal that sin I am struggling with and everyone rejects me? These are just some of the concerns we can have about being authentic in the Ekklesia or anywhere for that matter. It isn t wrong to have these concerns nor is it wrong to sometimes listen to them, but when our concerns override our call to be in authentic community it would seem that we have allowed our fear, rather than our faith, to rule us. What do you understand v23 to mean and encompass? What impact does holding unswervingly to the faith we profess have on our ability or inclination to be authentic and vulnerable? What are some of the ways we might spur each other on to love and good deeds (v24)? Have you ever wanted to give up meeting together (v25)? What do you think would happen if you took that feeling and transformed it into encouragement for others?
hen we authentically involve ourselves in the Ekklesia there is always a risk that we can be hurt, judged and rejected but there is also the equal or even greater Christ empowered risk that we will be supported, prayed for and encouraged. The Ekklesia is not meant to be a community where false pretence and superficiality rules, it is meant to be a community where we can be real and honest with each other. A place where people can come as they are and be lovingly encouraged to leave more like Christ. A place where the joyous can hurt with the hurting and the hurt can celebrate with the joyous. A place where authenticity is valued rather than avoided. If you were to describe the depth of relationships you have with people at HBC on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being talking about the weather shallow and 10 being soul baring deep how would you rate them? If they are more of the shallow side, why might this be? What would it take for you to go to another level of depth with others at HBC so that you might be in a position to pray, struggle, celebrate and do life with them? What will you commit to this week to seek to foster being as authentic as possible (have a coffee with someone, get involved in a ministry, share what is on your heart with those in your group, talk about what sin you might be struggling with etc.)
ur home tells us a lot about the different areas of our life. We have places in our life like our bedroom. A place to rest and relax, to rejuvenate and to feel safe. Holidays and family time, weddings and birthdays. The study reminds me of those places where we work, or even those places of energy and creativity. The living room is an interesting one. Our living room reminds me of the place where I m entertained, where conversation happens, things are neat and tidy, the TV blares and life is lived. My favourite place is the kitchen though (obviously). We mix up elements and create delicious meals, it s messy and vibrant, full of sounds and smells. It s hustle and bustle and organised meets the disarray. I wonder what kind of place in life the kitchen reminds us of. I d like to think that our Church could look like the kitchen. A place which is vibrant and energetic, full of people working together to create amazing dishes, made with love and care. That have a sense of organised, mixed with the messiness that is life. In we read about the Early Church and it sounds just like that! All is shared and all serve together. Do we feel that Church is that? I think we have a tendency to make the Ekklesia more of a living room. We can treat it like that. We invite each other into the living room where we are entertained, everything is neat and in order, there is no need to serve, just be served. How can we move out of the living room and into the kitchen as the Ekklesia? In what ways are we different to the early Church? In what ways are we the same?
hat is something that you find you once loved but has now become dulled with routine? My alarm on my phone was once one of my favourite songs but I found as I woke to it each and every morning, the beauty behind it s melodies and the brilliance with which it s played was lost a little on me. Unlike many young people, I used to love the beginning of school terms. Everything was fresh, I was eager to learn, my bag full of new empty books ready to be filled but not long into term my upkeep of readings would slow, taking notes would be more of an option then a necessity. I d lost the excitement and love I had. Have you ever felt that with God? The love is still there, the understanding of who he is and who I am is still there but routine has dulled that. Following Jesus becomes a chore, and the excitement has diminished. Many things take their toll on this. Sometimes we forget we re in relationship with the living God and are his children, Ekklesia becomes a chore, ministries and programs become what are important. Our hearts stop being in it. Maybe all the outer shell is still there but some of how we do these things is lost. In, God speaks to the people of his frustration with them for losing their motivation even as they worship Him and condemns them to Exile for forgetting to be people of justice, righteousness and love. He despises those things we do out of routine, without our hearts in it, looking to actions without realising just what they mean! In what ways can we maintain our purpose and our motivation to love God continually and authentically as his Ekklesia? How can we love the song our alarm clock sings each day?
s we have explored this week, authenticity is an important aspect of a healthy Ekklesia. It allows us to support one another, encourage each other and build community. However, our call to authenticity does not only apply to our place in the body of Christ but also to how we as the Ekklesia engage in the world around us. Paul uses a great metaphor in 2 Corinthians 5:20 to describe this call to missional authenticity. Paul calls the Ekklesia ambassadors for Christ. Ambassadors are hand picked diplomats for whatever country they belong to. The reason they are hand-picked is because there is so much riding on their bearing, words and conduct. How they act is a direct reflection of the country that they represent. Their home country s reputation is riding on the way they conduct themselves in the country that they are working. This dynamic is just as true for us Christ-followers who are part of the Ekklesia. Our home country is the Kingdom of God and our wider society is the nation we have been posted to. So what kind of ambassador are you? Perhaps more than ever before Jesus and His Ekklesia needs ambassadors who have an impeccable reputation - one where they are known for the right Christ-like things of grace, truth, love and justice rather than failures in integrity, gossiping or living like everyone else does. Because Jesus reputation is riding on us, his whole missional project comes down to a bunch of Spirit-filled ambassadors called into his diplomatic corps. How are you authentically living as Christ s ambassador today?